Seeking Advice on Best Area to Live in London for Commute to Lewisham and GOSH

[perdita0]

Hi everyone,

My family and I are moving to the UK for the first time, and I’m looking for some advice on the best areas to live in London that would suit our commuting needs. My spouse works between Lewisham Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital, traveling to either location 5 days a week.

We are a family of three, soon to be four, and we're looking for a 2-bedroom rental for a maximum of £1800 per month. Our priorities are:

• Less congested travel to both hospitals (ideally by train)
• A good, family-friendly area with parks, schools, and amenities

Could anyone recommend ideal locations that fit these criteria? Your insights and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance!

Leyton, Blackheath and Greenwich Village could all be possibilities.

I think you’d need to increase your budget though, as rents have gone really high and we’re coming in to high season. £2250 should get you what you want.

Good luck!

Telegraph Hill - you might get a 2 bed garden flat with that or close to it.

Look around Lewisham.

Forest Hill is family friendly and green. You can get a bus straight to Lewisham hospital. It is on the Overground and National Rail so easy to get access to the tube network for commuting in to town (I would, for GOSH get the train to London Bridge and then the Northern line to Euston) but you can also get the Thameslink from London Bridge to St Pancras.

It’s a nice area, but easily an hour from GOS. Expensive too.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/150244115#/?channel=RES_LET

@MalePoster9000 I live in TH but own don't rent. The rents are insane! They were barely scraping £1200pcm when I moved here.

@perdita0

Would Accommodation Services at GOSH be able to help?

If you were eligible for something, you could take it for 6/12 months in the first instance; once you have found your feet, you can look elsewhere.

I suggest it because their rents are likely to be within your budget as it stands at the moment.

https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/working-here/working-us/finding-somewhere-live/staff-accommodation/

Hither Green is a nice community with a nice park and primary schools. Very fast and frequent trains to London Bridge then tube to GOSH and walkable to Lewisham Hospital.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/150262538

West Ferry, Limehouse and Shadwell should also be in the running. You’d just about be able to find something within budget, eg:

www.openrent.co.uk/property-to-rent/london/2-bed-flat-mission-building-e14/2172059

A lot of the SE suggestions may have a nice family vibe but will be an absolute nightmare for getting to GOSH.

Thank you all for the suggestions. We were told by a friend that Southeast London can be very congested for traveling to and from every day, and to look into the East London area or to north of the River Thames. @TheSquareMile For clarification, my spouse does not work in the hospitals. He works in the construction sector and has to visit both the hospitals as part of his work.

@perdita0

https://www.foxtons.co.uk/properties-to-rent/se10/chpk0794787

In my experience SW London is hideously busy with cars. SE London (or parts of it) have very good transport links - just not the tube.

Also things have changed since Covid. I get the train in to London Bridge from Forest Hill beyween 8am and 8.30am and it is never too crowded. A lot of the time there are seats!

People who live in SE are always defensive about transport, but the truth is it’s very unpleasant trying to reach certain parts of central London, especially during the rush hour.

Getting to the area around Holborn, Bloomsbury, Russell Square is a particularly unlovely and complicated journey.

So as OP has already twigged, much better to look for somewhere north of the river.

You can get the bus to Lewisham and GOSH from Crystal Palace, but £1800 for a 2-bed might be very difficult now.

I can get to that area on the SL6, or the bus to Brixton and then the Victoria line, in less than 90mins from Crystal Palace in rush hour. Normally my bus is about an hour with no changes.

No I think people in SE London know that the transport links are pretty decent - although not SE to SW other than Clapham.

Anyone on the overground is a few stops away from Canada Water. Anyone on a main train line can get to Victoria / London Bridge.

Yeah, getting from SE to SW is surprisingly annoying. Getting to central is fine, though.

The issue here is wherever they live he will still have to travel to SE London some of the week. So my view is they may as well take advantage of the cheaper housing and more family friendly areas near Lewisham hospital and put up with a commute in to central London some of the time.

Mr Monkey works in Covent Garden and it really isn't an issue getting there from where we are in SE London.

I don't understand this post at all. As a PP has said, if you have to get to work in Lewisham some of the week, you still have to use that transport system - since Lewisham area has plenty of nice bits that are reasonably within budget, it makes sense to start locally and at least do away with transport. I'd suggest Brockley, Hilly Fields, Ladywell area as leafy and easy walking distance to the hospital.

Bloomsbury is perfectly walkable from Charing Cross where trains from Lewisham come in. Dead easy and not complicated.

Hither green area would be my choice too. Super easy commute on foot from Charing X

As long as he can get to London Bridge he can easily get to Lewisham, likewise GOSH lies between Kings Cross and Bloomsbury So access to Central/Elizabeth Line and District/Jubilee lines, such as Stratford or nearby, would cover both. Tube is busy but manageable at peak hours but if he is in construction he may miss travelling at Rush hour anyway. A 2 bed in East London would be possible at your budget.

Somewhere on the Lewisham train will work, when going to GOSH he can take a train to London Bridge and switch to the Farringdon train or take a bike with him and cycle from Waterloo east/take the bus

If he works between two site, might as well be close to at least one!

Exactly! People are so weird about South East London!